Be Kind to Me
by AdventFalls
Summary: Takes place after Swordcraft Story. Pratty's finally fulfilled her dream of becoming a Craftlord. So why isn't she entirely happy? SugarPratty


WARNING! This story contains romance of the lesbian/ shoujo-ai/ femslash/ inset-random-descriptor-here variety. Turn back if that ain't your cup of tea. Leave a review if it is.

Special thanks to Dark-Angel-874 for pointing out the fact that Pratty is sixteen, not eighteen.

* * *

"Work, work, work! How clean does Bron want this godforsaken ship?!"

Obviously, the swabbie was none too pleased about drawing cleaning duties- AGAIN. 'Fifth time this week', he thought. He was young, but at the rate he had to scrub the deck, he was going to have carpal tunnel by next year.

Just then, he heard footsteps. He furrowed his brow, suspecting that one of his crewmates was messing with him again by making a mess of the deck with muddy boots.

"Oh, for the love of- Do you have to tortur-"

The swabbie was stopped short when he realized just who it was that he was talking to.

"Oh my- Craftlord Pratty! My apologies."

The newly-crowned Craftlord of Iron looked distracted, but acknowledged him. "It's okay. Can I have the ship to myself for a while?"

"Sure, but I have to clean-"

"I'll take over. Just take the night off."

There are several things that the young lad had thought impossible. Obviously, this was one of them. Regardless, the boy handed her the mop and the sponge, then walked below deck, beginning to seriously contemplate seeing a psychologist. Or maybe just talking it over with the crew... or not.

Pratty had finished cleaning the ship like she promised an hour and a half ago. Yet, she just couldn't tear herself away from the spot that Sugar and her used to frequent.

'Sugar...'

The very reason that Pratty had been so out of sync for the past week. They'd always visited this very ship after those battles in the tournament. Her Guardian Beast was a very unusual (if predictable) creature, even by Beast standards. The girl looked like a fairy, for pete's sake! She could be passionate at times, wielding her aquatic magic to protect her master and her friends. But she could also be very jealous when she felt that someone was flirting.

From the very moment that they'd met, she knew that she was in for a weird experience.

* * *

_The ritual had finally been completed. After several minutes of waiting, __Pratty__ could finally get to work on forging new weapons on her own. A blue light flashed. __blinding__ all the people in the room. When she could see again, a woman with pinkish-purplish hair and a matching pair of a black bra and shorts was there, floating three inches above the ground._

_Bron, __Pratty's__ master, looked stunned. "Wow. It's Sugar. I never expected you to call forth the same one as your father..."_

_The woman looked disoriented, looking around the room, finally settling her eyes upon __Pratty__. She looked the apprentice up and down, __then__ simply asked if she was __Shintetsu's__ child._

_Pratty__ got that question a lot, but didn't see it coming from a Guardian Beast. "Um, yes... I am."_

_Her new Guardian smiled for a moment, __then__ floated toward her, becoming a clear violation to her personal space. The white-haired sixteen __year__ old blushed a little bit, and decided to ask her to take a few... uh... steps back. And that was when the kissing started._

_Sugar had placed her hands on __Pratty's__ shoulders, placed her lips upon her master's, and began to allow their tongues to mingle._

_Pratty__ was now as red as a beet, and Sugar, perhaps sensing this, broke off the __makeout__ session. Sugar smiled widely, and simply said, "Hello, Master. My name is Sugar."_

_Bron__ simply looked at __Pratty, __sweatdropped__, then proceeded to head up the stairs. "When you're ready, I'll show you two your room."_

_Sugar squealed with excitement, following __Bron.__"Oh goody!__ Our own little love nest!"_

_Pratty__, still stunned from the spit exchange, simply raised her right hand to her lips. "That was my first kiss..."_

* * *

'And that was only the beginning.'

Unbeknownst to the Craftlord, three figures were standing about twenty feet behind the vessel that she stood on. One had fiery red hair, with a sword at her side, whilst the other was the object of Pratty's eye at the moment. To Sugar's right was Bron's niece, Razzy, dressed out in her usual yellow outfit and bandana. Since no one else was going to start the conversation that the three knew needed to occur, she figured that she'd begin.

"Okay, so she's here. Why did you bring _us_ here?"

Sugar kept her eyes on Pratty. "She's been coming out here on her own now for about a week." She turned to look at the redhead. "Sanary, do you know why she's come out here?"

The girl to Sugar's left thought hard for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders. "No idea. She seemed fine this morning, though."

Sugar disagreed. "No. You weren't there this morning. She barely touched her food. I'm getting really worried about her."

Razzy squinted, trying to figure out just what it was that her former competitor was thinking. "Maybe she's hung up over something. Like Shintetsu... or a boy or something, I don't know."

Sanary's eyes widened. "Razzy, that actually sounded like a half-way decent idea."

"I know."

"But your ideas are always-"

"I know."

"...I think my brain just exploded."

Sugar simply kept quiet through the whole exchange. 'Why, Master Pratty? Why do you walk alone so often these days?'

She'd been trying to think of everything, if anything, that she'd done in the past week to upset Pratty, but she hadn't come up with anything besides her usual flirting- was that it? Her master had never taken her words offensively, so what was going wrong?

"Sugar!"

Sugar brought herself back to her senses, and faced Sanary. "Yes?"

"I asked you a question. You didn't answer."

"What was that?"

Sanary sighed, then repeated herself. "Do you think we should try to talk to her?"

"Um... no."

"Okay, then what about just one of us?"

Sugar didn't answer again. Sanary motioned to Razzy to walk away with her a little bit. "We'll be right back."

Once the two friends had walked away about fifty feet, they stopped.

"What'd you think?"

Sanary looked back at the ship. "I think that you had it right- Pratty's got the hots for some boy, and Sugar's not pleased with her method of coping with an unrequited love."

Razzy nodded. "One of us is going to have to talk to her. Not Sugar, though."

That got Sanary's curiosity sparked. "Why?"

"If Pratty didn't want Sugar with her on these walks, then why would she want to talk to her now?"

"Good point. You talk to her."

"What?! Why me?"

"Because you were able to figure out why Pratty's so depressed and why Sugar doesn't want to talk about it!"

"No! That was a lucky guess! Besides, you know more about feminine pride and all that!"

"Oh, come on. That was a weak excuse. You go."

"No, you go."

"You."

"You."

"You!"

"You..."

* * *

'My legs are really starting to go numb.'

Pratty shifted a little in her position, deciding to lean forward onto the wooden barrier. Nope, still not able to think clearly.

It used to be so simple- Sugar would make a pass at her, she'd blush, and pretend that nothing had happened.

But ever since that incident in the Labyrinth and Parista, things just couldn't return to the way they were before. 'That was a nightmare.'

_After getting her rear end handed to her by __Parista__, she was approached by the Holy Spirit of Ice, __Kuhrya__. He offered a way to forge a weapon that could send __Parista__ back to the Spirit World. The ingredients were hard to come by, but not impossible to find. __Summonite__ Gems? __Summonite__ Ore? __Sakuro__ had offered to retrieve those items. But there was one final item on the list._

_Her Guardian Spirit's soul._

_Sugar._

_When this revelation was made, __Pratty__ stood still, not quite sure that what she'd heard and what he'd said __were__ the same thing. __'Her soul?'_

_She turned to look at Sugar, trying to find some way that she could find some scrap of morality in this exchange. Sugar floated over to __Pratty__, and smiled. But not in her usual, cheery manner, but more of one that knew what her Master had to do._

_"Just do it. If I can serve you in the hereafter, then I would die happy."_

_Pratty__ couldn't speak a word. She just felt so guilty even thinking about sacrificing her Guardian. __No, not just a Guardian, one of her best friends.__ And __Pratty__ was not the kind of person to abandon a friend to a miserable fate._

_After what seemed like eternity, she finally found courage enough to speak._

_"Is there no other way?"_

_Kuhrya__ stayed silent for a moment, before smiling. "Yes. But I would need all of __Shintetsu's__ swords-"_

_In a flash, __Pratty__ made a run for it, off to retrieve her father's swords from her home..._

* * *

And then Parista was defeated, Sanary was saved, and Pratty finally followed her dead father's footsteps to become a great Craftlord.

'Speak of the devil...'

She'd turned around to start pacing again, only to find Sanary walking toward her.

"Hello, Pratty."

Sanary stopped about three feet from the girl.

"Are you okay? You seem stressed."

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing. I just kind of want to be by myself right now."

Sanary looked at her quizzically, then fired off a sure-fire response. "I seem to recall that you didn't leave me alone. I'd have been a goner if you had."

Pratty cracked a tiny little smile. "I guess you're right." She began to walk back to the wooden barrier, Sanary following behind.

Neither of them spoke for what seemed like forever. Finally (to Sanary's relief), Pratty started to talk.

"Sanary, we're friends, right?"

The redhead blinked. "Of course. After all that's happened between us, how couldn't we be?"

"How do you know when you're friends with someone, and where you're..."

She looked at the distressed girl. "When you're what?"

"When you're... more than friends."

Sanary made a note to thank Razzy for being right for once. "So, you have feelings for someone?"

Her posture straightened, if only a little bit. "How did you guess?"

"Sometimes," she smirked, "you just know. Call it feminine intuition."

"I... I think so."

Sanary grinned a little, poking the Craftlord in jest. "Who is it?" After thinking a little bit, she quickly became disgusted. "PLEASE tell me it's not that brat from the Gold Guild."

Pratty took notice of this plea, and actually laughed a little. "Varil? Never!"

"Well, it obviously can't be Brom-"

"No. Ew."

"Well, those are the only guys I can think of besides Chaves, and he's a total idiot!"

Sanary was still thinking on her feet, desperately trying to figure out who the mystery guy was, when she stumbled on it.

"It is a guy, right?"

"Right?"

Pratty just kept silent. Somewhere in Sanary's mind, a red flag shot up.

"...Does that mean your crush is a girl?"

"I don't even know if it is a crush!"

"Is it Razzy?"

"No, and it's not a crush!"

"Then who?"

* * *

"Why have they been talking so long?!"

Neither Sugar nor Razzy could look away from Sanary and Pratty's discussion, even if they couldn't hear a word of it, Razzy out of curiosity and Sugar out of jealousy.

"She's just talking to Sanary, okay? It's not like they're exchanging spit."

Sugar still was a little perturbed. "Even so..."

"Why do you even care? Why did you even bring us here?"

Sugar paused for a moment. 'I guess I should've known it was going to come to this.'

"I care because I love her."

Razzy was surprised just a little. It had been blatantly obvious while Sugar was around her Master, but that kind of affection was never openly discussed.

"But... she's never said anything about loving you back that I know of. So why do you still bother?"

Sugar smiled at Razzy. 'First time she'd done that all night,' Razzy noted.

"I mean, I heard that Shintetsu promised her hand in marriage to you, but if that's it, you know... Are you even listening?"

She nodded. "At first, I loved her because I was so glad to come back, and so glad to finally be with his child. I told her that all I ever would need from her was her kindness."

Sugar then looked into her eyes. "She promised me, and she kept that promise."

Razzy had to take this all in. Sugar had openly, honestly, admitted that all her flirting was real. Did Pratty even have a-

'THAT'S IT! THAT'S WHY!'

While this revelation came to the yellow-clad Craftknight, Sanary walked right between the two. "Um... that went well."

"So, how did the discussion go?"

"Yes," Sugar asked, teeth gritted, prepared to rip the red-head a new one, "how did it go?"

"I think you should talk with her."

Sugar's anger lessened by just a bit. "What?"

"I think that you need to have a little chat with your Master."

"But-"

"You'll be fine. Just go."

The Guardian Beast was confused, but barely showed any signs of it, flying toward the ship. Meanwhile, Sanary and Razzy simply stared at the ship and the lone person standing on it.

"Razzy, do you think they'll actually-"

"No idea. Let's just watch."

* * *

'I need to start getting back home earlier. Sugar'll start to get worried about me.'

The sun was starting to peek out over the horizon. She began to turn around, ready to go home, sleep in, and come up with a good excuse for why she hadn't slept in her bed-

and found Sugar just three feet in front of her.

"Oh, uh, Sugar, uh... Hi."

She smiled sheepishly, one of those little charms that made her so attractive to Sugar.

"Master Pratty, why are you out here? I know this isn't 'Craftlord business'."

'Damn. So much for putting this off.' Pratty lowered her head.

"Master... why've you been avoiding me? Do you wish me to leave?"

The Craftlord of Iron jerked her head up. "NO! No... I don't want you to go."

"Then why have you been leaving me alone?"

"I don't know."

Sugar wrapped her arms around her beloved. 'Beloved,' she chided herself, noting that it probably would not ever happen.

"Please, Pratty, tell me."

"That's new."

"What?"

Pratty stared into her partner's eyes. "You called me by my name. No Master, no Miss, just Pratty."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ma-"

She put her hand over the fairy's mouth. "No. I like it."

For the first time that Pratty could remember, Sugar blushed. Hell must've frozen over.

"Sugar, are you actually blushing?"

No response.

"Sugar, would you really like to know why I came here?"

She didn't look, but she could tell that the pink/purple haired fairy was nodding. She finally let go of the hug after what seemed like forever.

It came out of her after a good minute of awkward silence. "IcameoutherebecauseIwasthinkingofyou."

Blink. "I didn't understand you."

She sighed. 'Why does it have to be so hard?'

"I came here because I-I've been thinking..."

Pratty was so nervous that she didn't realize that the distance between the two had shrunk to just one foot now, and Sugar had started hugging her affectionately. And it was Pratty's turn to blush when she realized where her Guardian's head was resting.

"About what?"

"Listen, I've just got to say it. I've been coming out here for a week now trying to straighten myself out."

"Mast-"

"Please, just call me Pratty, alright?"

"Okay, P-Pratty."

"I was thinking about you and me." She looked at the sky, proclaiming, "Finally! There! I said it, now life can go back to normal."

Despite this exclamation, she didn't break the hug. It made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and she hadn't felt that since the last time Sugar had kissed her.

"Ma- Pratty, I can get closer than a friend right now, if you want."

Now the distance between their heads had shrunk from a foot to mere inches.

'Screw it.'

Pratty moved her head in for the kill, making full on contact with Sugar's lips. The Guardian's eyes widened to the side of dinner plates while she was trying to figure out what had just happened.

* * *

Logically-

If Pratty was showing a Public Display of Affection...

And if that PDA was a kiss...

And if that PDA was with Sugar...

And if Pratty wasn't drunk or insane...

And it wasn't April 1st...

And it wasn't a dream...

It must've therefore been real!

* * *

She let herself enjoy this kiss. 'Pratty...'

Finally, Pratty pulled back her head. Her face was redder than a barn filled with beets.

Pratty decided to speak first. "I think I liked that."

"I enjoyed it as well. Pratty?"

"Yes, Sugar?"

The hug that the two were sharing tightened, becoming even more affectionate.

"Thank you, for being so kind to me."

The two began to walk home, hand in hand.

"Pratty? I love you."

The Craftlord couldn't help but smile. "I love you too."

"That was beautiful."

"Yea, Razz, maybe someday we can find something like that."

* * *

The Next Day-

Bron finally decided to pay Amariss a visit in another of his ill-fated attempts to woo her. It was 1 PM, for pete's sake! He entered the house, and found a note.

* * *

_Pratty,_

_Went to the store to spend some of the winnings you gave me._

_Bron,_

_Don't even try to follow me. I'll be back later._

_Amariss_

* * *

'Aw hell.'

Bron decided to abandon that plan and just annoy his favorite ex-apprentice.

He walked up the stairs to shake her out of bed, only to find a strange sight.

Pratty was still in bed, embracing someone who was also lying in said bed. Bron took a closer look, to see that the mystery person was Sugar, whose arms were also wrapped around Amariss's daughter. Both were under the covers, and both had a tiny little smile on their faces.

And unless he was mistaken, the mess of clothes on the floor probably meant that neither of them were wearing clothes.

'I'll let her sleep in an hour before I embarrass her.'

* * *

A/N: Here's something that surprises me- the game itself is chockful of lesbian jokes when you play as Pratty- and no one else that I can find on the whole site has written a fic about this game that invokes this couple (which might as well be canon), Sanary/Pratty (May also be canon, if Pratty got a different Guardian Beast), or a combination of the two. I'm probably wrong, there's probably someone else out there.

But to make a long story short, that's why I wrote this.

/rant

This was my very first attempt at writing something that wasn't for school- leave a review!


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